CHP results worth the cost

Last fall, as homicides surged in Stockton, a California Highway Patrol posse came riding into town at the request of city officials. They're about to ride off into the sunset.

The Record

Last fall, as homicides surged in Stockton, a California Highway Patrol posse came riding into town at the request of city officials. They're about to ride off into the sunset.

We hope they don't. We need them at least for a few more months.

Since they arrived violent crime in the city has ebbed. There were 11 homicides in October, the month before CHP officers joined Stockton police on our streets. In November there were six homicides and in December there were four.

January came and went without a single homicide.

Not all of this can be attributed to the state officers prowling Stockton's streets. But the increased police presence and the concerted, multi-agency effort to get firearms off the streets, parole violators behind bars and more police pressure in high-crime areas certainly helped.

About the time CHP officers began working with Stockton police, CHP officers also were deployed to Oakland.

Stockton officials want the CHP officers to stay and have asked Gov. Jerry Brown to keep them here. He should, at least long enough for the city to bring more officers onto the city force. If that happens, the city can qualify for federal funds to hire even more city officers.

Given the results of having CHP officers here - and they were good - and the fact that in recent years the state has essentially raided this city's treasury to help it through its financial crisis, it's not too much to ask that the state help us with law enforcement in our time of need.

If another two or three month CHP commitment is considered too burdensome on the state (and how could it possibly be?), then there should at least be a guarantee that if violence starts to surge again, state help will be immediately dispatched.

The cost to the state is low compared to the cost of the nearly six dozen homicides our city experienced last year.